Currently there is a Custom Notification based on length of time.
What would be nice is a Custom Notification if a Device Turns On or Off between certain hours of the day.
My wife noticed the electric blanket was already on when she went to turn it on one evening. That’s because there is a button that is easily bumped that disabled the auto off that got hit.
It would be really nice if there was a Notification that fired say any time after 10AM to 10PM we know if it was left on. I think this could be used to isolate lots of other problems or usage cases.
Since Sense works heavily off of cycling patterns The length of time Custom Notification is not very useful and would not work on the electric blanket. The blanket was “on” for 36 hours. But as far as Sense is concerned is was never “on” for more than 12 seconds and turned on/off a 1000 times in that period.
Sense needs to understand when a “pattern” starts and stops. Not a single “pulse” within a pattern is up or down. And what it’s average power is when that pattern is active.
Even if I looked at my bubbles I would not have seen the blanket left on unless I caught it exactly during that 12 seconds it pulses the heat.
It’s also difficult to do any automation based on a “pulse” of a pattern.
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I have a similar problem with my clothes washer. I would like to receive a notification when the clothes washer finishes. But because it goes through various starts and stops in energy use as the tub changes directions, when it refills the tub with fresh water, etc. Sense thinks it is turning on/off multiple times. The clothes washer always finishes with a high speed spin so it would be great if there was a way to tell sense that this is really the end of the cycle and let it key off that. As @mswlogo said above, it is part of Sense understanding the full pattern of energy usage by a device.
Also, since I want this notification to go to my home automation system through IFTTT all the options built into custom notifications aren’t available to me. I just get multiple IFTTT notifications of the device turning on/off. Custom notifications should simply have a destination that you can choose. Then you can choose to route that notification to the Sense app, to IFTTT, or to some other destination in the future.
Thanks
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@jay.m.basen If you are using IFTTT - a work around would be to create a notification that washer has been off for 5 minutes (or set a time that works for you). This would bypass all the individual start/stop sequences during a complete cycle and let you know the load is finished.
The off for 5 minutes (or more) might work if you also captured some state variable that it had turned on earlier. Otherwise off 5 minutes on its own would continually fire. I assume that’s what you meant.
Also one other thing Sense could do for Custom Notification as a minor step towards recognizing a pattern would be to also add custom events based on number of “on” events per hour would fire that a “cycling” device is “on”. And it would track that it’s “on” and also offer an event that fires when the device stops cycling for some period of time.
For electric blanket device example which has frequent short pulses. Like 12 seconds every few minutes.
I could say if it cycles 5 times in 30 minutes it’s “On” and if it goes 30 minutes with no cycles, it’s “Off”.
This would go a long ways without changing anything in how Sense works. Just smart detection of “simple” patterns.
I’m sure it will be a long ways before it can recognize the first fill cycle of the washer fill and the last spin. But ultimately it should. But I realize how complicated that is. But might be do able some day.
Meanwhile getting events on “number of peaks” per period of time would be the next best thing. You could “script” this externally but it would be nice to be built in as well and probably be more robust.
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Thanks
Yes I’ve played around with timing but haven’t been that successful unless I make the timer quite long (10 minutes). When your trying to get multiple loads of laundry done in a day a 10 minute delay in a notification adds up quickly… I just isn’t optimal.
This would be helpful for me but a different application. Sometimes we forget that we left a heater on (built in electric baseboard heat with a dumb thermostat). I want to set a notification that only sends if the heater turns on between 9pm and 6am so I am reminded that we left it on and can turn it off.